LONDON – Motonobu Tezuka wanted takedowns. Vaughan Lee didn’t want to be on the ground. It was as simple as that.

In a fight that featured a lot of Tezuka going after takedowns, and a lot of Lee defending, Lee took a unanimous decision, sweeping the judges’ scorecards in a mostly lackluster fight on Saturday.

The bantamweight bout was part of the preliminary card of Saturday’s UFC on FUEL TV 7 event at Wembley Arena in London. It streamed on Facebook ahead of a main card on FUEL TV.

Lee threw first, landing a snapping inside leg kick. But Tezuka answered with one to the outside in a first minute that featured mostly feinting. Seventy-five seconds in, Tezuka pushed forward and tied things up, but Lee turned the action around quickly and landed a pair of knees along the cage as he defended Tezuka’s hopes for a takedown.

After breaking free at the 3-minute mark, Lee went to work in the standup game again and landed a good combination that forced Tezuka to look for a defensive takedown. But again, Lee defended along the fence and worked in some short punches to the side of the head while Tezuka insisted on holding on to a single-leg attempt. When Tezuka finally let off the leg, he was able to land a few right hands of his own while keeping Lee pressed against the cage. At the 30-second mark, referee Leon Roberts split them apart, and Tezuka again went after a takedown. But again, Lee defended.

Again in the second, Tezuka wanted a takedown. And though he was able to gently drag Lee to the canvas, it was Lee who worked to get on top. He was able to land some ground-and-pound. But Tezuka was relentless in going after a leg lock, then a heel hook. The action rolled to the fence as Lee scrambled to get out. And finally he broke free – just in time to defend against a Tezuka kimura attempt. With Lee back to his feet, Tezuka finally landed a solid takedown that had Lee against the cage working out of guard. Roberts called for more action from Tezuka, but Lee was able to wall-walk to his feet. Tezuka got another short takedown as time winded down, but Lee was back up quickly without taking any damage.

After a minute of standing, Tezuka went back to his game plan – trying to take Lee down. But Lee’s takedown defense continued to win the day, and after a pair of knees, he was able to break away. After yet another Tezuka takedown attempt resulted in him holding Lee along the fence with Lee defending, Roberts broke them apart with 90 seconds left. But it was more of the same.

“At the beginning of the fight, I didn’t let my hands go as I wanted to and felt a bit stiff,” Lee said. “I knew he was going to try to take me down, so that’s what I trained for. It pretty much went how I thought it would go. I’m always wanting to improve and fight better, but a win’s a win.”

Lee (13-8 MMA, 2-2 UFC) is back in the win column after a first-round submission loss to T.J. Dillashaw this past July and now is back to even in the UFC. Tezuka (19-6-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC), fighting outside of Asia for the first time in his career, lost for the second straight time after a split-decision setback against Alex Caceres in November in his UFC debut.

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